Vapors
by Sketchpad
Summary: Emerald crafts a trap for our intrepid Off-Colors. Will they be able to turn this around with a secret that she hoped they'd never find?


Vapor...

The ambush Emerald had planned was personally sanctioned by her Diamond to take place at the edge of a vaporous nebula, specifically picked by Emerald to be the site of her greatest victory over the wretched Off-Colors, and their despised leader, Captain Lars.

No more would the ungrateful, so-called 'oppressed' people throughout the colony worlds of the empire, Gem or otherwise, take rebellious inspiration from the seditious antics of that human and his crew of criminals.

On this day, a cocky human will die screaming, light-years from home and family, his only company, the shattered remains of misguided outlaws that would have been better off living and hiding for eternity in the dark warrens of Homeworld.

Her musings of revenge and personal glory from the Authority was halted by a crew member alerting her to a sensor blip detected on the edge of a protoplanetary system, dominated by a blue giant star in the periphery of the gossamer strands of the nebula.

Sensor computers confirmed that the blip was the profile and energy signature of the Sun Incinerator, the pride of her fleet, and the secret key to the empire's naval choke hold on the heavens.

Native space-faring species, long cowed by imperial naval might, learned to fear the very mention of the ship's name, in advance of an upcoming engagement. The debris clouds of thousands of irreplaceable vessels, officers and crew were grim testament to its legacy, whether assisting an imperial fleet, armada, or appearing as a singular show of Authority force.

As a Gem, she was extremely long-lived, but its theft, by criminal hands, was a dishonor she could never live down.

Nor would her Diamond let her, as she was now driven, by order and personal pride, to hunt down this rabble-rousing pirate crew, and make an example of them to any other Gems who dared entertained thoughts of disloyalty to the Authority.

Emerald snapped at an officer to bring the image of where the Sun Incinerator was, on the forward viewer. Where a panoramic view port was showing the vista of space and the nearby fronds of the nebula, it suddenly switched to an image of a titanic blue sphere of fire, up ahead. Visibly, there was nothing to suggest that a ship was in front of it.

"Magnify," she ordered.

Her monoscopic view was now filled with the surface of an azure inferno, and in the center of it, was a tiny dot, hanging motionless.

"There he is!" Emerald hissed, torn between two conflicting emotions-eagerness for the impending kill, and almost a sense of pride between these two adversaries, that Lars would face her alone.

But then, she settled in her captain's chair and gave a grim scoff at such a quixotic notion.

It was to be expected. No malcontents rallying around the Off-Colors' banner could ever gather enough combat-level ships to challenge the Authority, let alone enough able-bodied Gems, to crew them and make a significant threat.

The Off-Colors would defy the Authority, alone, and would pay the price for such defiance, alone.

Still, the fact that Lars had his crew park the ship so close to the blazing face of a star, concerned her. So much so, that she ordered Communications to open a channel to the Sun Incinerator.

A moment later, the screen was hosting the view of her familiar bridge manned by those foolish outlaws and their leader, who dared to steal from her.

"Hey, Emerald, how's things in the Authority?" Lars asked, to prick her. "The way you've been trying to catch us, I'm surprised the Diamonds didn't turn you into sand, already."

Emerald favored him a patient, confident smile, as if giving the condemned a last laugh before the end. "The Diamonds always recognized my worth as both a commander and a privateer of high standing, and not even your sad band of felons will ever change that. To that end, I don't know what made you decide to come here to meet your death, but I appreciate that. Well, my task force and I appreciate that."

With a snap of her fingers, caught on the fleet-wide com, the signal was heard, and a small flotilla of swift attack craft and support vessels responded, gathered around Emerald's ship, coming out of a pre-arranged micro-jump in hyperspace from outside sensor range and gathering, protectively, around the flanks of Emerald's angular ship.

"All ships," she spoke, evenly, through the fleet-wide com. "Engage the Sun Incinerator and destroy the Off-Colors."

From a holo-projected screen hovering over one of the arms of her chair, Emerald watched the tactical display of twenty craft flying in a traditional diamond formation, for maximum firepower saturation on a single target, with a sly smile.

She looked up at the view screen and asked, almost luxuriantly, "So, Lars, before the end, do you have any final words that you'd like me to record? I find that words like that help me sleep better at night."

Lars, not stirring in his seat, gave another one of his cocksure grins that she absolutely hated, and said, "As a matter of fact, I do, Emerald. First, it was a nice touch activating a false distress beacon to lure us into this little ambush that you set up. However, because it took a while for us to get here, our tactical advisor had time to clue us in on your little surprise party.

"Second, I used to think that you named this ship the Sun Incinerator, because it was way cool. Don't get me wrong, you're absolutely right about that, but digress. See, after a while, our chief engineer had time to really go over your ship, and she discovered that this ship was way more special than you advertised. A lot more."

He nodded to a waiting Rhodonite, who tapped a glowing key on the touch panel of her strategic station.

Almost imperceptible from their back-lit position in front of the blue giant, reflective, aft hull panels opened up around the Sun Incinerator's glittering, super-hardened, crystalline fuselage, fully catching the primal energy of the cerulean sun.

From the approaching fleet, the pirate ship shone, like a jewel caught in the sunlight, as the Rutile Twins brought the ship about, pointing its needle-like prow towards the enemy vessels.

It was all the information Emerald needed to allow the final indignity to settle around her shoulders, like a mantle of fools. The secret of the Sun Incinerator was found out by those offenders.

"Oh, and Emerald, sweet dreams," Lars taunted. "Fire when ready, Rho."

"Firing now, Captain." said the Head of Strategic Operations.

Powered by the stellar fury behind them, force fields that protected the corsair, also, safely channeled the raw, radioactive power of the star into collectors far more powerful than any solar panel, which, in turn, were funneled through super-chilled, magnetically-shielded conduits, running throughout the ship, and finally, blasted from the length of the weaponized projector prow along a magnetic sheath, the width and angle of which, could be adjusted by Rhodonite from her station.

Self-loathing at the loss of such a ship, and self-preservation to avoid its main weapon, forced Emerald to bark out an order to retreat before a single ship was attacked. The crew under her didn't understand, as they obeyed, but she knew better.

As the various captains of the task force detected what looked like the star ahead of them rushing to ram them, the wiser females ordered retreats, while the more reckless ones ordered evasive maneuvers. They were doomed, in either case.

A focused, unforgiving beam of concentrated ultraviolet and x-ray radiation lanced out from the shielded, mobile, little sun gun, and caught the task force, as it was still in tight formation.

Boiling warships, fuel, surprised Gems, and their dreams of glory through imperial conquest, were transformed into a vast, ionized wisp of sterile, superheated vapor, hundreds of thousands of kilometers long, and blending, both atomically and visually, into the background of the nebula.

"Did the sensors get all that, Padparadscha?" Lars asked the sapphire, who took a moment before answering.

"All external cameras recorded the engagement. I predict that the Diamonds will lose more support, as a result of this footage," she announced, satisfied.

A venomously disheartened Emerald brooded in her chair, as her vessel flew, ignominiously, from the outskirts of the engagement zone, and prepared to jump into lightspeed.

She silently lashed herself with the thought of those thrice-damned Off-Colors laughing at her expense, and probably living for the day when her Diamond personally shattered her gem under the heel of her titanic boot.

Emerald was forced to give the criminals their due, this day, another reprieve from the impending deaths they so richly deserved.

She stared at the view screen, absently. She had a report to prepare for her Diamond, and a dubious performance of fearlessness to rehearse, when she presented it.


End file.
